Podesta Group

India’s prime minister met with the president of a leading liberal think tank during a swing through Washington this week after his government enlisted the services of a lobbying and public relations firm founded by that think tank’s former chairman.

“I see lobbying,” Tony Podesta has said, “as getting information in the hands of people who are making decisions so they can make more informed decisions.” Last week the information Tony Podesta was giving was the divorce complaint he had filed in D.C. Court against his wife Heather. The hands receiving the information were those of a gossip columnist for the Washington Post, who made the “informed decision” to report on it. Later in the day Heather, who is also a lobbyist, passed the text of her counter-suit to the Post. It published a follow-up.

A super PAC with ties to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and financed by liberal billionaires from New York and Washington, D.C., is dropping huge sums to help reelect a vulnerable Democratic senator who has decried out-of-state influence in the race.

The first time he saw her from a distance. She was a reporter, observing his workplace from the outside. He was struck by her good looks, her energy. He mentioned her to a friend, who told him she was out of his league. But he persisted. His friend brought him to a party where he found an opportunity to strike up a conversation with her. One thing led to another. He took her to drinks. She mentioned she liked baseball, rooted for the Washington Nationals. They had that in common. So for their next date he took her to play catch. In Nationals Park. When it was closed to the public.

Former Obama administration public relations flack and amateur disc jockey/fashion photographer Ben Chang recently became a principal at the Podesta Group, the lobbying firm cofounded by left-wing brothers John and Tony Podesta.

A delegation of American business leaders with lobbying ties to relatives of a top Obama administration adviser wrapped up a four-day tour in Egypt aimed at laying the groundwork for increased economic cooperation on Tuesday, as violent rioters stormed the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.